Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Easter is such a tender day.  Children remember the eggs and chocolate bunnies, but as we mature we learn that Easter begins with remembering death and suffering before we remember forgiveness, mercy, new life and love. Today I am remembering my Polish Grandma, Magdalene. Who came to the US with adopted parents, her own parents having died in a flu epidemic.   Sometimes I would sit with her for afternoon coffee.   Of course, we always had a cookie or a piece of cake to share as well.   She taught the art of welcoming.   “It doesn’t matter what you have, always treat the visitor with kindness.   If all you have to offer is a piece of bread and a cup of coffee, offer that,” she would say. Our community has been so blessed to welcome to our house, not far from where Grandma and I shared coffee—people from China, Peru, and Colombia, --people of Lakota, Navaho, and Mohican nations, people who are African American, Turkish, and of course people like ours...

Last month (July 21 Post), I wrote about women religious from all over the country responding to the call to help out with the recent humanitarian crisis occurring at our border with Mexico.  I was privileged to have been able to go and spend ten days in El Paso, Texas, welcoming families from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico, as they arrived in this country.  The welcome offered by myself and other women religious was nothing more than a listening ear, a clean pair of clothes, a hot meal, and a safe place to sleep. Good Dominicans ask questions!   During these ten days of accompaniment, I had so many questions.   Why do we have borders?   What can the U.S. do about the reasons children and families are fleeing their countries?   Why won’t my country be more welcoming or inviting?   How can someone else travel with only a mochila or backpack full of everything they own and I have so much?    I am so grateful to have had...